Late Spey flood alerts endangering livestock
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A WORRIED Kingussie equestrian believes that flood warnings along parts of the River Spey in the strath may need to be reviewed after his horses were nearly swamped by the rising water levels.
Ruaridh Ormiston, who keeps some of his horses in a field near Ruthven by the Badenoch capital, said they had been left marooned on a sliver of slightly higher ground after the river burst its banks and flooded the field last week.
He said the official flood warning from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) did not come until much later when the named storm Ali was battering the strath.
"The SEPA flood warning came 48 hours too late which is not unusual," said Mr Ormiston, owner of Highland Horse Fun.
"The flood started on Monday night (September 17) with heavy rain and rivers rising – the SEPA flood warning did not come until the Wednesday night.
"Looking at the SEPA gauge levels the Spey Dam started spilling over on midnight on Monday night. It started rising long before that.
"The flood warning was 5.34pm on the Wednesday – 48 hours too late to be of any use as everything was flooded by then. And they sounded the all clear when the fields were still all flooded.
"I think SEPA need to review their system."
SEPA said it would be happy to discuss the situation in a bid to learn more about the impact of rainfall on the Ruthven area immediately around the flooding.
It also urged people to report local "flooding impacts" so it could be better prepared when issuing alerts.
Meanwhile, Mr Ormiston also has concerns over what might happen when the new dualled section of the A9 is constructed.
He fears that it could cut off his animals from the higher ground they retreated to during last week's flooding.
He said that while horses can swim and the latest flood was not a big one – "more a half-flood" – which allowed the animals to reach higher ground with little difficulty, that may not be the case in the future. "The big worry for us is that when the new A9 is built we will lose our high areas and they will have no refuge areas left.
"At the moment we know how the meadow floods and the high areas that livestock can go to for refuge.
"However after the new dual carriageway A9 is built we will lose the escape routes and the higher refuge areas we have at the moment.
"We sincerely hope that Transport Scotland are taking livestock into account when planning the new road and where they can find high areas for flood refuge and emergency escape routes."
